What do you do for a living and how is working out with the kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I SAH. I don't know how y'all do it. I'm exhausted reading this thread. I'd love to go back to work, but, uh, uh, how would my house get clean? Who would buy the groceries, do the cooking, scheduling all family activites, who would take the kids to their doctor's apts, after school activities, piano lessons, etc.? Most important, who would stay home with my youngest, who has a chronic illness that keeps her home from school 3-4 weeks every winter? DH has a long commute, travels, there's no way he could pick up the slack if I were to work FT. I'm overwhelmed every single day, so having a job would likely kill me. Just sayin.

I'm a C-level exec... I outsource most of that.

[Anonymous]

I'm in policy, fairly 'senior', and work 40 hours a week. I work that simply because I have no choice. I am a single parent with no support, and an ES-aged child. It has taken some years to build a resume that let's me say to potential employers: "these are my boundaries, take it or leave it".
Also, I don't know anything about marketing, but I've found that developing a niche skill is really helpful in being able to set my own terms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I SAH. I don't know how y'all do it. I'm exhausted reading this thread. I'd love to go back to work, but, uh, uh, how would my house get clean? Who would buy the groceries, do the cooking, scheduling all family activites, who would take the kids to their doctor's apts, after school activities, piano lessons, etc.? Most important, who would stay home with my youngest, who has a chronic illness that keeps her home from school 3-4 weeks every winter? DH has a long commute, travels, there's no way he could pick up the slack if I were to work FT. I'm overwhelmed every single day, so having a job would likely kill me. Just sayin.

I'm a C-level exec... I outsource most of that.

I'm sure your kids love that.

[Anonymous]

Attorney. I work from home as a solo practitioner. Primarily I write appeals so i don't have to go to work. I have three children. I only work about 20 hours per week.

[Anonymous]

Attorney, work from home. 30-50 hours a week, depends on what is going on. Most of the time the people I work for don't care when/how I do my work as long as it gets done. But I had my kids in my 30s - by then, I had a decade of experience and good contacts. I would not have gotten this job otherwise. I will never be a partner, but that's fine.

[Anonymous]

I am a part-time partner at a law firm; my husband also works for big law. The kids grandparents watch them two days a week. We have a nanny one day a week. I stay at home, working only as needed, the remaining two days of the week. The kids are in preschool now so that gives me some extra time during the day to run errands, get work done.

It is really hard. I am not sure how long it will last. But I feel incredibly blessed to have a job that affords me this flexibility. We are able to save significant amounts of money, contribute to retirement, pay off the mortgage early, and do home projects on our current incomes. The kids seem pretty happy and well-adjusted, but then again they are only 4 and 2 right now. My fingers are crossed that it can work out at least for a few more years this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a part-time partner at a law firm; my husband also works for big law. The kids grandparents watch them two days a week. We have a nanny one day a week. I stay at home, working only as needed, the remaining two days of the week. The kids are in preschool now so that gives me some extra time during the day to run errands, get work done.

It is really hard. I am not sure how long it will last. But I feel incredibly blessed to have a job that affords me this flexibility. We are able to save significant amounts of money, contribute to retirement, pay off the mortgage early, and do home projects on our current incomes. The kids seem pretty happy and well-adjusted, but then again they are only 4 and 2 right now. My fingers are crossed that it can work out at least for a few more years this way.

What about this is hard? You have a flexible part time job that pays you hundreds of thousands of dollars a year affording you most any luxury you want while your parents and nanny help? Shit lady, sounds like a sweet deal to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I SAH. I don't know how y'all do it. I'm exhausted reading this thread. I'd love to go back to work, but, uh, uh, how would my house get clean? Who would buy the groceries, do the cooking, scheduling all family activites, who would take the kids to their doctor's apts, after school activities, piano lessons, etc.? Most important, who would stay home with my youngest, who has a chronic illness that keeps her home from school 3-4 weeks every winter? DH has a long commute, travels, there's no way he could pick up the slack if I were to work FT. I'm overwhelmed every single day, so having a job would likely kill me. Just sayin.

I'm a C-level exec... I outsource most of that.

I'm sure your kids love that.

Why would my kids really care who cleans the house, shops for groceries, picks up the dry cleaning, mows the yard, does the laundry, etc?
I attend school events, we do fun things on the weekend, I check homework, we eat dinner together as a family every night.
Why would you assume my kids are unhappy because I can afford to outsource the scut work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I SAH. I don't know how y'all do it. I'm exhausted reading this thread. I'd love to go back to work, but, uh, uh, how would my house get clean? Who would buy the groceries, do the cooking, scheduling all family activites, who would take the kids to their doctor's apts, after school activities, piano lessons, etc.? Most important, who would stay home with my youngest, who has a chronic illness that keeps her home from school 3-4 weeks every winter? DH has a long commute, travels, there's no way he could pick up the slack if I were to work FT. I'm overwhelmed every single day, so having a job would likely kill me. Just sayin.

I make $103k and DH makes $123k. We clean, often at night after the kids are in bed or on our telework days when we can. We grocery shop ourselves by running to the store after the kids are in bed, while the other parent cleans up. Cooking- I do the cooking b/c I am home first with the kids.

Sorry to hear about your youngest. Our youngest has some health problems too, though they don't keep him home like your little one is. We just have to work hard at keeping him from getting sick, or else he really will be out of commission.